The present disclosure relates to techniques for managing access to media steamed by a computer network.
Video content, audio content, or both together are regularly provided to various viewing devices, such as smart phones and tablets, as streamed media. This media content typically undergoes several processing and transmission steps before ultimately being delivered to the viewing device. For example, media content may begin as raw media source data. The raw media source data may be then transmitted to a coder at which the media source data is encoded as a series of segments. The encoded segments thereafter may be sent to a distribution server that stores the encoded segments and generates corresponding playlists. The playlists may be provided to a viewing device to enable the viewing device to download and sequentially render the encoded segments.
However, various errors or defects in the media content may occur as it undergoes the above-described processes and transmissions. For example, a media feed of the media source data to the coder may be interrupted. In other cases, there may be an error in the encoding process, resulting in a corrupted segment. Such errors may disrupt the viewing experience of the media content. This particularly may be the case when an audio stream and a video stream are presented in synchronization with one another. Errors in one of the streams may cause a de-synchronization with the other stream.
Accordingly, the inventors perceive a need in the art for improved media streaming techniques that adapt to errors in a media stream.